De Italiaanse dichter Dante Alighieri werd tussen 14 mei en 13 juni 1265 (volgens hemzelf in de Divina Comedia in de Goede Week en in het teken van de Tweelingen) in Florence geboren. Zie ook alle tags voor Dante Alighieri op dit blog.
Uit: Divina Comedia Canto I (Fragment)
Are aim’d at by this bow; but even those,
That have intelligence and love, are pierced.
That Providence, who so well orders all,
With her own light makes ever calm the Heaven,
In which the substance, that hath greatest speed,
Is turn’d: and thither now, as to our seat
Predestined, we are carried by the force
Of that strong cord, that never looses dart
But at fair aim and glad. Yet is it true,
That as, oft-times, but ill accords the form
To the design of art, through sluggishness
Or unreplying matter; so this course
Is sometimes quitted by the creature, who
Hath power, directed thus, to bend elsewhere;
As from a cloud the fire is seen to fall,
From its original impulse warp’d, to earth,
By vitious fondness. Thou no more admire
Thy soaring (if I rightly deem) that lapse
Of torrent downward from a mountain’s height.
There would in thee for wonder be more cause,
If, free of hindrance, thou hadst stay’d below,
As living fire unmoved upon the earth.”
So said, she turn’d toward the Heaven her face.
ALL ye, who in small bark have following sail’d,
Eager to listen, on the adventurous track
Of my proud keel, that singing cuts her way,
Backward return with speed, and your own shores
Revisit; nor put out to open sea,
Where losing me, perchance ye may remain
Bewilder’d in deep maze. The way I pass,
Ne’er yet was run: Minerva breathes the gale;
Apollo guides me; and another Nine,
To my rapt sight, the arctic beams reveal.
Vertaald door H. F. Cary
Dante Alighieri (14 mei/13 juni 1265 – 13/14 september 1321)
Portret in de kathedraal van Orvieto
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